With just over two weeks left until the 10th deadCENTER extravaganza, we thought it would be a good idea to give you the opportunity to get to know some of our fantastic filmmakers. So, borrowing an idea from LA Weekly’s Karina Longworth (the Bernard Pivot to our James Lipton), we submitted four questions to each filmmaker about and themselves and their films. We’ll be posting as many responses in random order as we can fit in between now and the kick-off.
First up is Terry Holloway, director of the short film The Robbery, which screens Thursday, June 10th at 6:00pm and Saturday, June 12th at 3pm as part of the Comedy Shorts program.
1. Tell us about your movie. Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.
My film The Robbery is a short punch to the gut from Oregon. We like bikes and we like beer… so I made a film about it.
2. Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, tell us how you get by while raising money for your films.
I run a video store in Oregon and fund all of my projects out of my two pockets.
3. Have you been to deadCENTER before? What’s something you look forward to discovering (or re-living) at the festival and/or in Oklahoma City?
I have been going to deadCENTER since I got my first student film accepted into the OKIE SHORTS in 2004. At the time it was the new emerging festival in town, and now it has become a solid venue gaining notoriety where I live on the West Coast. I live in the Northwest and make a trip to Oklahoma City once a year because of the community and network of filmmakers and lovers it inspires in Oklahoma. Every year at deadCENTER I always look forward to finding those rare films that nobody knows about yet. I remember watching Fearless Freaks, the documentary on the Flaming Lips a few summers back and spent the next 2 years talking it up to friends and rubbing it in their face because they couldn’t see it.. I love deadCENTER.
4. Every filmmaker has influences and cinematic heroes. Name one of yours, and while you’re at it, tell us one film (or scene) in history that you wish you had directed.
I have always admired Richard Linklater, writer and director of such films as Dazed and Confused, Slacker, Before Sunrise, and Tape. I am drawn to realism in movies and he often tells his stories in real time, where the characters’ most normal moments are in the spotlight. If I could direct a film in history I would most likely pick Bottle Rocket by Wes Anderson; his writing always has the unexpected wit and naive optimism that I relate to.
